The present invention relates to a method for modifying the optical characteristics of visible parts of a vehicle that are situated inside or outside the passenger compartment, with the exception of the glazing.
Cost imperatives impel motor-vehicle constructors to standardize the manufacturing operations, although the users want their vehicle to be customized, especially as regards the choice of the colors of the bodywork and of the interior fittings. The desire of the users might even be to be able to modify the color of the passenger compartment at will, according to the weather at the time, the color of their clothes or quite simply according to their mood.
The object of the invention is to satisfy these contradictory requirements.
The invention aims to achieve its objective by virtue of a complex film containing at least one material with an X-chromic function being deposited on the said visible parts.
The system may be purely passive. In this case, the functional material is a thermochromic material that changes its optical characteristics, especially its color, as a function of the ambient temperature.
The alterations to the optical characteristics may also be obtained via a deliberate action by the user. In this case, the functional material is of the magnetochromic or electrochromic type, capable of taking up at least two states as a function of the voltage applied to electrodes of the complex film. The absence of voltage corresponds to a first state and the presence of a voltage corresponds to a second state.
The method according to the invention may also be used to precondition the temperature in the passenger compartment of the vehicle when stopped.